July 07, 1:29 PM
Living room feel a little cramped? Mine was feeling really cramped until I made a few small changes to the layout of everything and now it all flows and feels free.
Opening things up starts with your couch. It's best to really take a look at the overall shape of your room. If you have your couch in the middle of the room and parallel to a main wall, its going to seem like it takes a ton of space. Try angling your couch so that it faces the more open area of your apartment. It may seem odd at first, but it can really open things up.
If you really don't have the layout to have the couch at an angle or even in the center of a room for that matter, be sure to have the couch up against a wall and try angling the entertainment center.
If you really want to open things up, dump the entertainment center all together and go with a flat panel television. I have seen one Apartmentite who had his DVD player and Playstation actually hidden under his couch to save space. He then ran all the cables from the TV under a cheap throw rug from Wal-Mart. This took care of both the need for an entertainment center and need to cover up the cables. It was ingenious. The best part was that his end table also doubled as a DVD stand so you never even had to get up to put in a movie. Sweet!
I've preached this a number of times in the past, but nothing can make your apartment seemed cramp like a bunch of clutter. Be sure to remove all items that clutter the room. Store things in their proper place and if you are a pillow fiend...make sure to keep them on the couch and not taking up floor space.
Also, look into wall mountable items like speakers. You can even mount shelves on the wall rather than using a bookshelf. This should give you a plethora of extra floor space.
There are a number of ways to open up the living area in your apartment. Just think outside of the box and be creative. Try a few things out and if they don't work, try something else. Whatever you do...make sure and let it sit for a day or two before you switch it up because sometimes something new takes time to really enjoy.
Have fun!